Background
Philippe Halsman was born on May 2, 1906 in Riga, then a part of the Russian Empire (present-day Riga, Latvia). He was a son of Morduch (Maks) Halsman, a dentist, and Ita Grintuch, a grammar school principal.
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1949
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1954
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1959
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1961
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1972
Philippe Halsman was born on May 2, 1906 in Riga, then a part of the Russian Empire (present-day Riga, Latvia). He was a son of Morduch (Maks) Halsman, a dentist, and Ita Grintuch, a grammar school principal.
Philippe Halsman finished school by 1924 and went to Dresden, Germany, to study electrical engineering.
In 1928, Philippe Halsman was accused of his father's murder and subsequently was sentenced to four years of prison. In October 1930, he was released. The same year, in 1930, he went to France and started to collaborate with different fashion magazines, like Vogue. Eventually, he grew famous as one of the best portrait photographers in town for capturing sharp, cropped images. Four years later, in 1934, Philippe established his own portrait studio in Montparnasse and designed a twin-lens reflex camera, with the help of which he captured images of various artists and writers, including Andre Malraux, Andre Gide, Le Corbusier and Marc Chagall.
When France was invaded by Germany, Halsman fled to Marseille. He eventually managed to obtain a U.S. visa with the help of his friend Albert Einstein.
Halsman had his first success in America, when the cosmetics firm "Elizabeth Arden" used his image of model Constance Ford in an advertising campaign for "Victory Red" lipstick. In 1941, Philippe got acquainted with the surrealist artist Salvador Dali, with whom he collaborated in the late 1940's. In 1942, he started to work with "Life" magazine, photographing hat designs. In 1947, Halsman created one of his most famous photos of a mournful Albert Einstein, who during the photography session recounted his regrets about his role in the United States, pursuing the atomic bomb.
Some time later, in 1951, Philippe was commissioned by National Broadcasting Company to photograph various popular comedians of the time, including Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Groucho Marx and Bob Hope. During the photosession, the photographer captured many of the comedians in mid-air, which went on to inspire many later jump pictures of celebrities, including the Ford family, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Marilyn Monroe and others. In 1954, Halsman collaborated with Dali on their book "Dali’s Mustache". In 1961, Philippe published his book "Halsman on the Creation of Photographic Ideas", which presented the techniques on producing atypical photos, using six rules — the rule of the direct approach, the rule of the unusual technique, the rule of the added unusual feature, the rule of the missing feature, the rule of compounded features and the rule of the literal or ideographic method.
During his lifetime, Philippe Halsman photographed numerous celebrities, politicians and intellectuals, whose photos later appeared on the covers and pages of popular magazines, like Esquire, Paris Match, Look and others.
Philippe Halsman was known as one of the most outstanding photographers of the mid-twentieth century, who laid the foundation of Surrealism in photography. He was famous for his work "Jump", a series, which included more than 200 portraits of famous people, taking a leap. With his background in engineering, Halsman also made groundbreaking photographic inventions, including a twin-lens reflex camera, that allowed the operator to see his sitter through a viewfinder.
In 1945, Philippe was appointed the first president of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. In 1958, he was included in the "World’s Ten Greatest Photographers" list by magazine "Popular Photography".
In 1966, his photo of a grieving Albert Einstein was released on a U.S. postage stamp.
The photographer attained several awards, including Art Directors Club Medal in 1940 and Lifetime Achievement in Photography Award in 1975.
Pregnant girl
Richard Nixon
Garters
Salvador Dali book signing
Alfred Hitchcook
Voluptas Mors
Selman Waksman
Anjelica Huston
Andy Warhol
Vivien Leigh
Dali Atomicus
Jean Cocteau with actress Ricki Soma and dancer Leo Coleman
Marlon Brando
Marilyn Monroe
Jean Seberg
Self-portrait
Ava Gardner
Dali and Rhinoceros
Sammy Davis Jr.
Salvador Dalí in bed
Woody Allen
Edward Albee
Marilyn Monroe
Salvador Dali
Albert Einstein
Audrey Hepburn
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor
Constance Ford in an advertising campaign for "Victory Red" lipstick
Quotations:
"When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears."
"No photographer should be blamed when, instead of capturing reality, he tries to show things he has seen only in his imagination. Photography is the youngest art form. All attempts to enlarge its frontiers are important and should be encouraged."
"Of the thousands of people, celebrated and unknown, who have sat before my camera, I am often asked who was the most difficult subject, or the easiest, or which picture is my favorite. This last question is like asking a mother which child she likes the most."
"With a woman I try to photograph her beauty; with a man I try to show his character. Once I photographed a man with a big nose (Jimmy Durante), and emphasized his nose, and he was very pleased with the picture. That could not happen with a woman. The most intelligent woman will reject a portrait if it doesn't flatter her."
In 1937, Halsman married Yvonne Moser, a photographer. The couple had two daughters — Irene and Jane.
